


Of Skirts and Sparkly Shirts

by CyrusBreeze



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff, Gen, Not Beta Read, Protect trans kids, Team as Family, Trans Character, We Die Like Men, cuteness, i seriously got cavities over this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28304496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyrusBreeze/pseuds/CyrusBreeze
Summary: McClane Peralta comes out. Luckily, she’s got her mom, dad, and the Nine Nine on her side.
Relationships: Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago, McLane Peralta & Ray Holt
Comments: 2
Kudos: 59





	Of Skirts and Sparkly Shirts

**Author's Note:**

> I slapped this together in literally one day and I have feels about it. 
> 
> I just wanted to write some accepting parents and I am currently obsessed with Brooklyn 99 so it felt fitting. I feel like Jake and Amy would be so great if their kid came out to them, and I wanted to reflect that. 
> 
> Content Warning: some implied minor transphobia.

McClane Peralta was 18 months old when she first asserted that she’s a girl. She was at her cousin’s house, and Ava had decided that McClane absolutely needed to wear a princess dress. McClane put it on and twirled. She loved it. “I’m a girl!” She told the adults downstairs. 

They giggled quietly, and continued drinking their juice and Ava and Lacey and Cagney dragged her back upstairs for their tea party. 

Mostly though, McClane didn’t mind. Her mommy read her books and she played with dolls and other toys and she loved pink more than anything in the world. 

When she was three years old, she begged and begged and begged her daddy for a Frozen dress. Her dad purchased her one, and it quickly became her favorite dress in the entire world. 

She wore it to school every single day. She played it in, she loved it. It was her favorite thing. 

When she turned four, her dress hardly fit and it was harder to play in but she didn’t mind. She didn’t even realize she might need different clothes until a day on the playground. 

“That’s for girls!” Aiden said one day on the playground. 

“My daddy said there’s no such thing as both clothes or girl clothes,” McClane shot back. “Besides, I am a girl.” 

“No you’re not!” Said Aiden. “You pee standing up! You’re a boy!” 

At that McClane frowned, “I am not!” She yelled. 

“Yes, you are,” said Aiden. “That’s what my mommy said. Boys pee standing up.” 

The teacher blew her whistle and McClane and the other children ran to line, but McClane couldn’t stop thinking about what Aiden said. 

Later, in the car, McClane asked her dad. “Daddy, how come you pee standing up?” 

“Well,” said Daddy. “You have a penis and you’re a boy, and most boys pee standing up.” 

McClane hummed. “But I’m not a boy,” she said. “I’m a girl, so I guess I need to pee sitting down.”

Daddy almost stopped the car. 

“Mac?” Said Daddy. “Did someone say something to you at school?” 

“Aiden said dresses are for girls, but you said anyone can wear them, so I told him that. Then Aiden said I’m a boy because I go pee standing up. But I’m girl so... I need to pee sitting down.” 

“You’re a girl?” Daddy asked. 

Mac nodded. “And I want different clothes to wear to school.”

“You don’t have to wear different clothes because that punk Aiden told you to,” said Daddy. 

“I know, but it’s really hard to play at recess with a princess dress. I want a skirt, and a shirt with sparkles like Lorena has.” 

“Well Mackie,” said Daddy. “We were gonna get some ice cream, but how about we go get a skirt and sparkly shirt. How’s that sound?” 

“Perfect!” Mac cheered. 

-X- 

Jake stared at his son- child, in the rear view mirror. Could Mac be transgender? The subject of transgender kids had been in the parenting book Amy had bought, so Jake wasn’t entirely clueless. 

Sure, Mac’s assertion that he- she- they? We’re a girl hadn’t been entirely out of the blue. Mac loved princess dresses and dolls and other things that might’ve been stereotypically feminine but Mac also loved trucks and trains and getting muddy and none of those things or toys were really that indicative of gender. But was Mac really a girl? Was Jake’s child a girl?

Jake carried Mac, still in a princess dress, into The Children’s Place. Skirt. Sparkly shirt. Shoes. That much, Jake could do. It was easy. 

It was not easy. They had been standing there for almost an hour as Mac agonized over what shirt to get. 

“I remember when my daughter her age,” said an older woman near one of the racks. “She would take forever to decide what she wanted, just ages. Now, I just buy stuff for my grand babies and they love it anyway. Although, I must say, that pink sparkly heart would look so cute on a pretty girl like you.” 

Mac beamed, Jake’s child’s smile was so bright that it was almost blinding. “That one is perfect,” Mac said. Mac smiled a big smile, bigger than Jake’s had perhaps ever seen. 

And it was that moment that Jake realized he had a daughter. 

-X- 

Amy’s moment didn’t come until the Vacation Test. That was what one of the articles, and Mac’s psychological, had said. Try going on a vacation and letting your child live as their insisted gender. 

They had started off slow, letting Mac wear whatever she wanted to school, calling Mac Mac or Mackie rather than McClane, using gender neutral pronouns. 

The Vacation Test happened after three months of Mac being “gender creative” or rather “gender awesome” as Jake put it. They went to Disney world. Mac’s hair had grown out long enough that it was halfway down their back. Mac wore a princess dress everywhere.

Jake and Amy called their child Mackie and she and her throughout the whole trip. 

And Mac didn’t stop smiling the entire time. 

Amy’s favorite part was the mother daughter Princess tea. It was Mother’s Day weekend, which meant that there was a special Princess tea that Amy had waited forever to get tickets for. 

McClane had been so excited that they slept in their Sophia the first dress. She, Amy internally corrected herself. The whole point of the vacation was to see if she/her pronouns were McClane’s pronouns and if McClane was a girl. 

Amy knew her child was transgender. That was a given, and from the moment Jake came home with McClane and four new skirts and four new shirts, Amy knew that she didn’t have a son. But everyone, including Mac, wasn’t entirely sure what Mac’s gender was, whether was Mac was gender fluid or gender queer or gender awesome or if they were a binary trans girl. Mac leaned more toward the binary side of things, although she still preened over they/them pronouns. 

They arrived at the Princess tea seven minutes early and Mac bounced on the heels of her feet. 

“We’re here mommy! We’re here!” McClane said. 

“I see your little one is very excited,” said another mom in line. “Mine are too. She’s lucky I love her because I’m inclined to believe in six hours in line on a website for tickets was simply too long, but it’s worth it.” 

“Honestly it really is,” said Amy. “Just seeing her so excited is worth it.” 

“So, are you just a girl mom too?” The woman asked. 

Normally, Amy wouldn’t describe herself as a parent based solely on her child’s gender, and frankly, she found it annoying when other parents did. But she stared at McClane. McClane, who had spent every moment of the vacation in the Princess dress, who had grinned so wide when the characters called her a precious little girl, who had smiled so big when an older woman asked if she was a daddy’s girl when she hid behind Jake’s leg at the tea cup ride. McClane, who had gently corrected Jake and Amy when they accidentally used they/them on the vacation. McClane who had come out of her shell during the vacation, who introduced herself by saying, “Hi, I’m McClane, and I’m a girl.” McClane, who had thrived during their trip. 

“Yes,” Amy said. “I’m a girl mom, and that’s my daughter.” 

-X- 

The first time Laney called Raymond Holt “Papaw” had been a joke. Jake had coaxed Laney to do it during their Halloween heist. But then Laney kept at it, and who was Raymond to correct her? Kevin had gotten the much for sophisticated “Gampa Kev” but Raymond wouldn’t change being Laney’s Papaw for the world. He loved that kid with everything in him and he loved spending time with her too. 

It was why, when Raymond was asked to babysit so that Jake and Amy could set up for The Gender Reveal Party Part 2, Raymond was happy to take Laney to the mall. 

They were only supposed to buy one outfit, for the party, since Laney already had plenty of gender affirming clothes, but they had underestimated how easily Laney was able to manipulate Raymond by barring her big brown eyes. 

So they sat at the food court with three bags front the children’s place, two bags from Justice, two bags from Macy’s, and two bags from the Disney Store. 

Laney took a bite of her burger. “Papaw,” she said. Her tone and her eyes were very serious. “I have a very important question.” 

“And what is that Ms. Peralta?” Raymond asked. 

Laney blinked. “Tomorrow, me and mommy and daddy are going to go to the courthouse so that I can change my middle name. Cuz I like being McClane but I don’t like my middle name as much. Mommy said I could pick whatever name I want. And I was deciding. Mom’s got this big huge book of names, and I want my middle name to be Romona. Like Ramona and Beezus, but also like you, since you’re my Papaw. Mommy said I should ask you. Is that okay?”

Raymond blinked, struggling to hold back tears in the middle of a mall food court. It’d be an undignified place to cry. A single tear fell, and he tried not to draw attention. “Laney, it would be an absolute honor for your middle name to be Ramona.” 

-X-

Daddy and Papaw and Gampa and Uncle Charles were cleaning up from the party, but McClane slipped out quietly to follow her Mom and Auntie Ro-Ro. 

Mommy’s eyes were wet as the party winded down and they cleaned up, and McClane wasn’t sure why. Her mom had been so excited for the party, had done so so so so much planning and printed out the prettiest invitations and invited the whole family. But now Mommy was crying.

McClane slipped outside Mommy and Daddy’s door. 

“They didn’t come,” McClane heard Mommy saying. “I invited them. They said they’d think about it, but they didn’t come. You guys were great. I don’t even think McClane noticed. Antonio and David and Nico and Carlos and Junior came and Matty and Rafael sent gifts. Hell, even Roger Peralta bought her some shitty pink tourist shirt and sent her a note. But my parents, the ones who doted on her decided that my daughter being herself was too much for them. All the articles said how important it was that the adults in their lives were supportive.”

“Laney’s got support,” said Auntie RoRo. She’s got three incredible grandparents that love her more than anything. She has one less than great grandparent that supports her. She has Terry and Charles and even Hitchcock and Scully. And she has me, and I’ll break the kneecaps of anyone who dares to harm her. As for you parents? They’ll come around. Or maybe they won’t. God knows it took my mom forever and she’s still hoping I marry a man. But what matters is that Laney has support, and if your parents can’t love Laney for being herself, if they can’t see what an incredible little girl you have, then they’re fucking idiots.” 

Mom said something quietly and Laney pushed the door in. “Auntie Ro-Ro said a bad word,” Laney said. 

Mom looked up. “She did Laney-Bug. Did you hear that?” 

Laney nodded. “You feel sad because Abuelo and Abuela didn’t come to my party. It’s okay. Kyle from playgroup said that his grandparents took forever to call him Kyle. And Sarah said that her grandparents still don’t call her Sarah. It made them feel sad.” 

“How do you feel?” Mommy asked. 

“A little sad,” Laney said honestly. “But Grammy and Grampa and PaPaw came and G-Pa sent me a really pretty sparkly shirt. So that makes me feel better.” 

“You know I love you, right?” Mommy asked. 

“Duh,” said Laney. “You and Daddy love me all the way up to the moon and back.”

“That’s right,” Mommy said, and she opened her arms up for a hug. 

Laney settled into her Mommy’s arms. 

“And we love you too Auntie Ro-Ro,” said Laney. 

“Love you too, kiddo,” said Auntie Ro-Ro. She joined their hug.

“And Uncle Terry loves his favorite niece!” Said another voice, opening the door. 

“Don’t you have four other nieces?” Auntie Ro-Ro asked. 

“Yeah, and none of them are as cool as Laney,” said Uncle Terry. He also joined their hug, squishing Laney inside. 

“Are we talking about the coolest kid ever?” Said Uncle Chee-Chee.

“Charles, don’t you literally have a child?” Auntie Ro-Ro asked. 

“Yes,” said Uncle Chee Chee. “What about it?” He wrapped his arms about Mommy and Auntie Ro-Ro and Uncle Terry and Laney. 

“Is everyone in the Peralta and Santiago’s bedroom?” Papaw asked. 

“It would seem that way,” said Jake. “Y’all are all just, sitting in my bedroom, on my bed. Cool, cool, cool, cool.”

“Daddy, Papaw,” said Laney. “Join the hug!” 

Daddy and Papaw listened and they came forward and wrapped their arms around everyone. Laney closed her eyes. She loved being a girl. She loved sparkly skirts and dresses and shirts and cars and trucks and trains. But, more than anything of in the world, Laney loved her family, and she wild to change it for the whole entire world. 

“Can someone please move?” Uncle Chee-Chee asked. “I feel like something is going numb.”

“Title of your love tape!” Daddy shouted. 

Everyone laughed, so Laney did too.

**Author's Note:**

> What’d y’all think? 
> 
> A note: I tried really hard to grasp how Amy might feel, which would be completely accepting but also realizing that there are hundreds of genders and wanting McClane to be aware of which of those genders might be hers. So giving McClane the space to explore and then realizing that McClane was indeed a binary trans girl.
> 
> Anyway, I hope y’all enjoyed it. 
> 
> Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and I hope everyone is having a restful day! This is probably my last holiday with my transphobic parents and the feelings are intense. I hope everyone in similar situations is doing well and sending love and light to you.


End file.
